A woman who had recently miscarried befriended a pregnant woman, strangled her, cut the baby from her womb and took it home as her own, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at her trial in Worcester, Mass. Julie Corey, 39, acknowledges that the baby belongs to the dead mother, Darlene Haynes, but she has pleaded not guilty and says her boyfriend has not been fully investigated. Prosecutor Daniel Bennett said evidence at trial would show that Haynes, 23, was a slow, simple person who met Corey at a clinic where they both went for prenatal care. Corey miscarried in April 2009 but pretended she was still pregnant, Bennett said. On the night Haynes was killed and cut open, Corey called her boyfriend and said her water was broken and she was going to the hospital, according to Bennett. But when the boyfriend saw the baby girl he thought she looked odd and bloody, with her umbilical cord tied with string. In the days that followed, the prosecution says, Corey showed off the baby to friends while Haynes' body lay decomposing in her apartment. Prosecutors say Corey and her boyfriend ended up in a homeless shelter, where the police found them.

Passengers from a motorcycle cruise tour group prepare to board the Royal Caribbean International's Explorer of the Seas, docked at Charlotte Amalie Harbor in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, on Sunday. (Thomas Layer/AP Photo)

Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas will be returning to port two days early after more than 600 passengers and crew came down with a stomach flu during a 10-day Caribbean cruise. The Miami-based cruise line decided early Monday to end the trip after consulting with health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who boarded the ship Sunday in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. "We think the right thing to do is to bring our guests home early, and use the extra time to sanitize the ship even more thoroughly," Royal Caribbean said in a statement. "We are sorry for disappointing our guests, and we are taking several steps to compensate them for their inconvenience." The Explorer will be returning to port in Bayonne, N.J. A highly contagious norovirus is the suspected cause of an outbreak of vomiting and diarrhea aboard the ship.

The Egyptian military on Monday gave its leader, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a green light to run for president, replacing the legally elected president he ousted in a military coup. El-Sissi, 59, was also promoted to field marshal Monday, the same rank held by longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak. If el-Sissi runs for the office in April, it's expected that he would win easily because of broad public support, the nearly universal backing in Egypt's media, the intimidation of critics and the lack of alternatives. "It will more or less be a one-man show," said Ahmed Fawzi, the secretary general of the Social Democratic party, part of the liberal alliance that supported the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi.

A man sits under a banner with the photo of Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as he drinks tea in Cairo on Monday. (Mohammed Abu Zaid/AP Photo)

"There is a personal vendetta between el-Sissi and Islamists. No doubt violence will only increase under el-Sissi," Fawzy said.

Gays are welcome at the Winter Olympics, said the mayor of Sochi, a city of 350,000 -- and then he claimed the city doesn't have any of its own. Despite Russia's "homosexual propaganda" law, Anatoly Pakhomov said gays are welcome at the Games as long as they obey the law and don't "impose their habits on others." Gay people don't have to hide their sexuality, he said. "No, we just say that it is your business, it's your life," he told the BBC. "But it's not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city." He later admitted that he isn't absolutely certain there are no gay people in Sochi. "I am not sure, but I don't bloody know them." Russia's RT noted that there are at least two gay clubs in the city. Nikolay Alekseyev, a Russian gay rights activist, compared Pakhomov's comments to those of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who once reportedly said, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals." Alekseyev said gay people are present "in any city, any country, any culture and any historical epoch."

The Wire, a summary of top national and world news stories from the Associated Press and other wire services, moves weekdays. Contact Karl Kahler at 408-920-5023; follow him at twitter.com/karl_kahler.